The Irish Tweeder Jig

A round of applause for Clueless Joe and his Gassy Lassies!
(Sorry, too much beer & cabbage...)

Caroline kisses senate seat goodbye

From the NY Post:

Caroline Kennedy tonight withdrew her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate after learning that Gov. David Paterson wasn't going to choose her, The Post has learned.

Kennedy's decision removes the highest-profile name in the ring to step into Clinton's now-vacant seat, as she departs after getting confirmed today as President Obama's Secretary of State.

Sources said the reason Paterson had decided not to tap the daughter of John F. Kennedy was her poor performances in media interviews and in in private sessions with various officials.

Aides to Kennedy couldn't be reached for comment.

Let the sun shine in

Just days from announcing his choice, Paterson won't identify "about 10" people who he said are in the running to follow Clinton. He won't release the blank questionnaire he sent to each of them looking for background information. He won't turn over the candidate's completed forms. And the public isn't getting any idea how the hopefuls feel about broad or regional public issues -- or even if public policy is being discussed.

"How could it not be public? It's a blank form," said Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, the state agency that regulates enforcement of the good-government laws. Since 1976 Freeman, a lawyer, has been the top state employee who advises government and the public on interpretation of the public officers' law.

The names of those under consideration -- among them Caroline Kennedy, perhaps Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, several members of Congress and other elected officials -- should also be disclosed, Freeman said.

Paterson's Secret Senate Pick May Violate NY Law

Republicans in New York's Legislature are pushing for a special election to fill the expected vacancy in the U.S. Senate instead of allowing Democratic Gov. David Paterson to make a unilateral appointment through a secretive process.

Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, a Schenectady Republican, noted specifically that Kennedy, the perceived front-runner, has no record in elected office and her positions on public policy are largely unknown.

"We need an election - not a coronation - to ensure our next U.S. senator reflects the will of the people," Tedisco said.

NY Republicans move to force vote for Senate pick

Just say no to Caroline

Caroline’s nomination is Obama’s payback for Teddy’s support during the presidential election. In order to complete this plan, Teddy and Obama had to move Hillary out the way, accomplished by Teddy publicly scolding Hillary after her attempt to create and chair a Senate Health Subcommittee and the subsequent offer of SoS by Obama. In effect it was a game of good-cop/bad-cop, with Teddy letting Hillary know that she was essentially persona non-grata in the Senate and Barack coming in as the knight in shining armor to offer her a way to regain her dignity. One more glitch though, the vacant Senate seat would then be filled by the fickle accidental Governor Paterson. That’s where the promises of bundles of Kennedy fundraising money and “good relations” with the White House come in. Let’s face it folks, if Paterson picks Kennedy, he’s Blagojevich with the caveat that the money is going to his campaign committee (it ends up having the exact same result as the one Blagojevich was looking for).

New Yorkers, It's Time to Stand Up for Our Representation!!

Maloney wants Hillary's seat

Rep. Carolyn Maloney launched her own upstate tour Saturday - with a few more public stops than her more talked about rival for Sen. Hillary Clinton's seat.

Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, arrived in Buffalo Saturday morning for the start of a three-day tour that will also include Syracuse and Rochester.

These are the same cities Senate contender Caroline Kennedy visited last month. Unlike Kennedy, who was criticized for meeting only with city mayors and a handful of other officials, Maloney's schedule included public forums.

Kennedy has captured the most attention of the contenders for Clinton's seat.

Maloney, however, is also known to be aggressively seeking the seat and has hired Bill Lynch Associates, a political consulting group, to help promote her cause.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney makes upstate bid for Hillary's Senate seat

Why it's bad to have a one-party city

The production worthy of attention, as usual, has been taking place behind the curtains. That would be Bloomberg's attempt to use Caroline Kennedy to advance his own campaign to win reelection in 2009.

What seemed to be an inevitable acceptance of Bloomberg's bid to undo term limits by allowing himself a third bite at the Big Apple engendered a greater backlash than the mayor, accustomed to buying easy acquiescence, had expected.

He's backing Kennedy as much for his own gain as hers—to open up a potential path for himself to run back into the Democratic Party he left in order to dodge the party primary in his successful 2001 bid for the office. Bloomberg is now courting New York City’s county chairs to set up a possible run next year as a Democrat.

Camelot, The Puppet Show

Graphic from Gotham Gazette

Time for a federal investigation

If Michael Bloomberg is so interested in trimming the city's budget, allow us to kindly suggest one way to save the city $250,008.00 in 2009: Fire Kevin Sheekey immediately. The pit bull deputy mayor, who championed Bloomberg's non-bid for the White House and then counseled his boss against running for a third term (advice his boss ignored, of course), is now on the hot seat for his aggressive efforts to get Caroline Kennedy named as Hillary Clinton's successor in the Senate.

The Last Straw for Kevin Sheekey

While on the city payroll. While they are cutting back on police, fire and sanitation services. I could go on...

Who have we heard this from before?

A defiant Caroline Kennedy says she "wouldn't be beholden to anybody" - including Mayor Bloomberg - if she's picked to become New York's next U.S. senator.

"I'm really coming into this as somebody who isn't, you know, part of the system, who obviously, you know, stands for the values of, you know, the Democratic Party," Kennedy told the Daily News Saturday during a wide-ranging interview.

"I know how important it is to, you know, to be my own person. And, you know, and that would be obviously true with my relationship with the mayor."

Kennedy, sipping on peppermint tea at an upper East Side diner, was responding to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who said she could be more beholden to Bloomberg than Gov. Paterson, who will make the Senate appointment.

JFK's daughter has been helped behind the scenes by the mayor's top aide, Kevin Sheekey. She has also hired a political consulting firm with ties to Bloomberg.

Caroline Kennedy tells Daily News: I wouldn't be beholden to anybody

And you're rich so you can't be bought by anyone, right?

Caroline supports Queens preservation

A Richmond Hill elementary school may be the first in Queens to gain landmark status after the city Landmarks Preservation Commission considered the school’s case last week.

PS 66 was constructed in 1898 and has Victorian features, including round arches and a bell tower used to notify children on farms that school was starting.

PS 66 was known as the Brooklyn Hills School when it opened in 1901, after the name of a nearby development. It was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School in 2001, Leinwand said, in part because she promoted literacy and had a passion for historic preservation.

At the Manhattan hearing last week, Leinwand said LPC Commissioner Robert Tierney read a letter of endorsement from Onassis’ daughter, Caroline Kennedy.

Rich. Hill’s PS 66 up for landmark

Gary not a fan of Caroline

A Democratic congressman compared Caroline Kennedy to Sarah Palin, saying the would-be senator hasn't proved she has the "guts and the gumption" to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Rep. Gary Ackerman of Queens said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the Kennedy legend and connections won't be enough to make her a successful senator if Gov. David Paterson appoints her to the U.S. Senate.

"Everyone knows who she is, but I'm not sure what she is," said Ackerman. "Eventually she has to get in the ring, and face the public."

"DNA in this business can take you just so far," said the congressman, before cracking a joke. "Rembrandt was a great artist. His brother Murray, on the other hand, Murray Rembrandt, wouldn't paint a house."

Democrat Questions Caroline Kennedy's Experience

Note that Gary only seems to get press when he's displaying Borscht-belt type humor.

Hiram says, "I tripped!"

A day after he was charged with stabbing his companion in the face with a broken glass, State Senator-elect Hiram Monserrate said he was incapable of such a crime, and vowed to take his Senate seat come Jan. 1.

In a one-page statement issued Saturday evening, Mr. Monserrate said he deeply loved and cared for his companion, Karla Giraldo, and called her injuries an “unfortunate accident.”

“I have been charged with offenses that I did not commit and am not capable of committing,” he said.

According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Monserrate stabbed Ms. Giraldo in the face with a broken glass during a heated argument, causing a black eye and a cut that required 20 stitches to close. The incident occurred about 1 a.m. Friday in his Jackson Heights apartment. Prosecutors said the couple were arguing over an undisclosed item Mr. Monserrate had found in her purse. But Mr. Monserrate said in court papers that he tripped while bringing Ms. Giraldo a glass of water, causing the injuries.

Monserrate Says He Is Innocent and Vows to Take State Senate Seat

Monserrate and Giraldo spent Thursday night with Caroline Kennedy and other luminaries at the Queens Museum of Art for the Queens Democratic Party's holiday dinner.

They argued afterward, possibly because a guest at the party confused Giraldo with another of Monserrate's girlfriends, one law enforcement source said.

The fight turned violent in Monserrate's Elmhurst condo about 1 a.m., when he broke a drinking glass in his right hand and struck her - almost taking out her left eye, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Queens City Councilman Hiram Monserrate arrested on domestic assault charge

Monserrate, who still intends to be sworn in next month, is currently under investigation by the Queens district attorney over allegations he funneled city money to a Queens social-services agency that helped his campaign for Senate, sources say.

QNS. POL A GLASS ACT: KIN

Senator Kennedy from NY?

Sources: Caroline Kennedy Interested in Clinton's Senate Seat
By DEVLIN BARRETT and BETH FOUHY
Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic officials say Caroline Kennedy has spoken to New York Gov. David Paterson about the Senate seat that will come open when Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state.

Paterson's office says that the governor had been approached by several candidates for the job but that he would not discuss private conversations.

Kennedy is the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and a niece of Edward and Robert Kennedy. Robert Kennedy held the New York seat from 1965 until his assassination in 1968.

Democrats familiar with the conversation with Kennedy spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge it.